A target pigeon of the so-called Pro ZZ type and a launcher therefor of the Montefeltro 75 type are known from commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 4,077,384 issued Mar. 7, 1978 and filed June 3, 1976 as a continuation-in-part of abandoned application Ser. No. 604,069 filed Aug. 12, 1975, and from commonly owned and copending U.S. patent applications Ser. No. 762,019 filed Jan. 24, 1977 (now U.S. Pat. No. 4,133,532) whose disclosures are herewith fully incorporated by reference.
As described in the commonly owned and jointly filed application Ser. No. 892,922 entitled "Autoloading Target-Pigeon Launcher," whose entire disclosure is also herewith incorporated by reference, the above-described system, although a considerable improvement over the prior-art systems, nonetheless has several disadvantages. One of these disadvantages, namely that the launcher must be loaded by hand, is overcome by the machine described in this jointly filed application. This autoloading target-pigeon launcher is intended for use exclusively with the target pigeon described in this application hereinbelow.
The other failing of the known system relates to the separation of the propeller or body part of the target pigeon from the cap or witness disk thereof. It is important in normal target shooting, and essential in competition, that even an indirect hit on the witness disk or cap part result in separation of the two parts of the target for scoring. Nonseparation in case only one or two pellets strike the propeller part can be tolerated, but it is absolutely critical that any impacting of the central witness disk or cap part result in separation for scoring.
In the prior-art pigeons there is a web which extends across the ring part of the body. It is a relatively frequent occurence that a pellet fired from behind and below at a pigeon flying away from the shooter strikes this web part only, and does not cause separation, but merely presses the propeller part more tightly against the cap part. This web is essential in the prior-art pigeons for holding the pigeons on the launcher. Another common occurrence with the prior-art pigeons is that a pellet strikes the ring part of the witness disk which extends somewhat up and around the cap part so as to deflect the pellet, preventing a direct hit and also not impacting the cap part for separation of the pigeon into two pieces. Thus what happens is the propeller part of the pigeon shields the cap or part and prevents what should be a scoring impact from causing separation of the disk from the propeller part.
Another disadvantage of the known target pigeons, in particular of the reusable ones made of high-impact synthetic-resin material, such as described in the commonly owned and copending application Ser. No. 882,907 filed Mar. 1, 1978, whose entire disclosure is also herewith incorporated by reference, is that their reassembly requires the user carefully to reline the feet and various axially extending projections of the disk and propeller part with each other. Unless these various projections are exactly aligned prior to reuse of the pigeon, it is likely that the pigeons will come spontaneously apart when spun by the launcher for a misfiring.